1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wireless telecommunications. More particularly, it relates to cellular subscriber add-on services (voice and short message system (SMS)), applicable to voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) networks.
2. Background of the Related Art
When a wireless phone subscriber is involved in an emergency event, family, friends and loved ones will likely be concerned. If the subscriber is disabled in the emergency event, many times proper notification to the family, friends and loved ones is at best significantly delayed, if made at all. Additionally, if a loved one begins to suspect that the wireless subscriber may have been in an emergency event, perhaps because of the significantly delayed arrival, the loved one may not know the general location of the wireless subscriber, especially if the subscriber is traveling. This can be a frustrating and heartbreaking experience for the loved one who does not know which police department, highway patrol, or hospital(s) to query for information about the subscriber's well being. Moreover, important time for both the loved one searching for the subscriber as well as the responders (e.g., public safety answering point (PSAP), police, hospital, etc.) is wasted during search efforts.
FIG. 4 shows relevant portions of a conventional emergency call made from a subscriber phone.
In particular, as shown in FIG. 4, a subscriber 300 makes a 911 call, which is routed via an existing 911 call solution 302. For instance, if the subscriber 300 is making the call via a landline telephone, then the 911 call will be routed via switched telephone technology to an appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP). If, on the other hand, the subscriber 300 is a wireless phone, the actual location of the subscriber 300 may not be accurately known, and so the 911 call might be routed to an emergency call center, which in turn determines an appropriate PSAP.
Conventional personal emergency response monitoring services attempt to solve this type of problem. With a conventional personal emergency response monitoring service, a subscriber purchases a monitoring device for use exclusively in the subscriber's home. Then, during an emergency event, the subscriber uses the device to contact the call center of their personal emergency response monitoring service. The call center of the personal emergency response monitoring service handles the call directly, and contacts emergency services or loved ones that the monitoring service deems necessary.
According to these conventional systems, contact people are designated in advance by the subscriber, and are called by the monitoring service at the time of an emergency. If at the time of the emergency no responder can be contacted, emergency medical dispatchers at the monitoring service would notify an appropriate police department, ambulance company or fire department about the emergency situation.
For instance, one personal emergency response monitoring service is provided by Lifecare Ambulance Service™ (http://www.lifecareems.org/pers.htm). Such conventional systems are a personal alert system for emergency situations allowing a person, e.g., who is physically unable to seek help in more traditional ways, to contact trained emergency medical dispatchers with the touch of a single button. When the help needed button is activated, emergency medical dispatchers first talk to the subscriber to determine what the problem is. If the subscriber does not answer, contact is made by the monitoring service with a friend, relative, or neighbor who can help.
Personal emergency response monitoring services generally utilize private, third-party vendors that may not be held to proven, government-approved 911 infrastructures. For instance, personal emergency monitoring services 911 alerts go directly to the vendor, often bypassing routing to the government-approved and supported public safety answering points (PSAPs), which have the best training to handle an emergency and contact the appropriate responder(s), e.g., fire, medical, police, etc.
Moreover, conventional personal emergency monitoring services typically do not function fully or well for wireless (portable) subscribers. For instance, conventional personal emergency monitoring services do not have the benefit of position determining equipment (PDE) and/or a global positioning system (GPS) to pin-point the current location of an emergency wireless or otherwise mobile caller, including those calls coming over the Internet (e.g., voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)).
Perhaps most significantly, the present inventors have realized that conventional personal emergency monitoring services do not immediately notify loved ones upon occurrence of an emergency event. In fact, many if not most times notification to loved ones of the emergency event may not be made at all by the called service. Furthermore, conventional personal emergency monitoring usually requires purchase of a new electronic device, and focuses on a small market segment consisting of seniors and/or chronically ill parties.
There is a need for a generally better technique and apparatus for automatically contacting a wireless subscriber's family and/or loved ones upon occurrence of an emergency event.